We have a mystery! Saturday Rocky filled our above-ground pool to the top and pumped up the air ring around the top. Turned out no one had time to go swimming. Sunday afternoon we noticed that it was way low again, on both air and water, probably a drop of nearly a foot in the water level, which is quite a bit of water. On one side of the pool there was a place that had eroded, and the wood chips downhill from that were all washed away. It would have had to be one heck of a leak to have that result, but it wasn't leaking when we looked at it. He refilled it this morning and didn't see any signs of leakage.

The only conclusion we can come to is that someone or something leaned heavily on the side of the pool for several minutes. If it had been a bobcat or something, jumping up to get a drink, I would think the flow of water over the side would have driven it away. It seems like it had to have been a human, doing it on purpose. But why? I do not understand.

This doesn't qualify as a whine, and it's not one of my usual parent stories, but I just have to share. A special ed student (emotionally disturbed) brought in a flashlight the other day that he had taken apart, so there were wires sticking out. His teachers sent it to the office in a panic, because they were afraid he was going to electrocute himself or someone else. A flashlight. College educations here. A BATTERY OPERATED FLASHLIGHT.

While I agree with the assessment regarding him electrocuting himself, there are other dangers, including overheating or fire or leakage. Those are not necessarily likely scenarios, but possible. He ought not be playing with that at school. And the teachers ought to know to just take it away from him and send it home with a note that it is not an appropriate "toy" to bring to school.

Not that you were advocating he be allowed to play with a disassembled flashlight during school hours.

I can just see the Darwin award headline in my head about the kid who took out himself and a classroom from a fire caused by a shorted D cell.

It was kind of foggy and cool this morning, about 59 degrees at 7:00. My phone says it's 68 right now, at 11:30. Most of us are enjoying it, but there have been several teachers and other adults who have walked through and complained that it's freezing. They are actually using that word, freezing. Come on, man! It's beautiful!

This just looks like something awesome as a present for some of the harder to shop for people on my list, and I thought I'd share. They take the texts of some really great classic books, and print them on t-shirts, tote bags and postsers. http://www.litographs.com/ I am definitely getting a tote bag from here for my sis-in-law for Christmas. Just having trouble picking which book, but leaning towards "The Last Unicorn".